The work leading to this disclosure has received funding from the European Research Council Proof of Concept Grant under the European Union's H2020, ERC grant agreement number 641156.
Congenital cardiovascular defects in neonatal and pediatric patients are treated through palliative reconstructive surgical operations where the commercially available vascular transplants/grafts are generally fabricated from synthetic “non-remodeling” materials. Compared to adults, cardiovascular structures of neonatal and pediatric patients grow in size and their vascular micro-structure alters significantly with aging under increasing mechanical loads.
Typically, a series of open-heart surgeries must be performed at progressive stages of growth (First stage at birth, second stage in 2-3 years old, third stage in 4-5 years old and further operations in adulthood (˜50 years+)) since artificial grafts are unable to comply with changing vascular size and fail beyond their operating dimensions unlike live tissue. Additionally, it is further to be noted that surgical grafts should have geometries specifically engineered to the specific patient as cardiovascular anatomies are highly complex and differ between patients.
Treatment of cardiovascular defects in neonatal and pediatric patients therefore involves significant complexity and is prone to serious medical complications compared to adult patients. Due to the nature of the cardiovascular structures of neonatal and pediatric patients and their vascular micro-structure altering with aging under increasing mechanical loads, surgical operations are successively conducted by which the commercially available vascular patches are implanted to the patient. However, as noted, since the cardiovascular anatomies have complex differentiating structures, commercially available square or rectangular two dimensional patches are typically needed to be structured and shaped prior to the operation by the surgeon according to the specific needs of the patient.